Since 2011, Kabul airport attack worst US loss in Afghanistan

By Team Newsable | First Published Aug 27, 2021, 10:08 AM IST

According to the US Defense Department, 13 people were murdered when two suicide bombers from ISIS's Afghanistan branch detonated their explosives at a critical gate into the airport and a neighbouring hotel used to house refugees.

The 13 US military personnel killed in the Kabul airport explosion on Thursday were the Pentagon's most significant single-day loss in Afghanistan since 2011.
According to the US Defense Department, 13 people were murdered when two suicide bombers from ISIS's Afghanistan branch detonated their explosives at a critical gate into the airport and a neighbouring hotel used to house refugees. The initial death toll was 12, but it was raised when another military man died due to his injuries. According to Marine Corps spokesperson Major Jim Stenger, 10 of those killed and many injured were US Marines.

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In combat, the two-decade war has claimed the lives of 1,909 US military personnel. On August 6, 2011, terrorists shot down a Chinook transport in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, during a nighttime mission. Thirty US servicemen, including 22 Navy SEALs special operations troops and eight Afghans and a US military dog, were killed in the accident.
Previously, a helicopter was included in the worst single-day toll. On June 28, 2005, three Navy SEALs were killed in action after being flown into the mountains of eastern Kunar province.
A helicopter carrying reinforcements dispatched to assist one SEAL who was still alive on the ground and retrieve the remains of the three was shot down, killing all 16 people on board.

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The conflict has also taken a heavy toll from attacks on Americans by perceived friends. In July 2008, in Wanat, Nurestan province, the fight between Taliban insurgents and US soldiers resulted in the deaths of nine US service members. On December 30, 2009, a "triple-agent" that US intelligence believed was on their side assassinated seven CIA personnel and contractors, as well as two others, at Camp Chapman, a CIA outpost in eastern Afghanistan. On April 27, 2011, an Afghan pilot shot killed eight members of the US Air Force and one US civilian at Kabul airport.

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